Olympics

The IOC later today will officially award the '28 Games to L.A., and Mayor Eric Garcetti called it a "huge win" for the U.S., the city and the "Olympic movement." Garcetti and LA '28 Chair Casey Wasserman are in Lima, Peru, for today's announcement, and Garcetti said, "L.A. has the Olympics in our blood, in our DNA. Casey and I were kids in 1984 when we hosted the Olympics ... and we want to reignite the movement." He noted the U.S. has "bid more than any country" for the Games the last few decades. Garcetti: "We’re finally, after a long drought, going to bring it home.” Wasserman noted there is a "great foundation to start from” in L.A., with “all of our venues in place.” Wasserman: "It’s the first time in an Olympic Games we won't have to build a single new venue. We could host the games ... in two months or 20 years." He said the organizing committee will "spend the next 11 years focusing on the experience and the opportunity to bring the creativity and innovation that is so inherent in the community in Los Angeles to the Olympic Games." Following the interview, NBC's Matt Lauer asked, “We have 11 years to go, so when do you think the discussion of traffic in L.A. begins? Is that like tomorrow?” (“Today,” NBC, 9/13).

YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE: LA '28 and Paris '24 both prepared national celebrations to mark the IOC vote. Fifty major landmarks in L.A. and other structures in past U.S. Olympic hosts Squaw Valley, Lake Placid and St. Louis began lighting up last night with the bid’s signature purple, yellow and pink colors and logo (Ben Fischer, Staff Writer).

Tokyo 2020 has now sold 43 domestic sponsorships worth $2.8B, blowing past the prior sales benchmark for a single Games -- and it is not done selling, Tokyo Organizing Committee CEO Toshiro Mutosaid. “This is a record number of local sponsors,” Mutotold the IOC session in Lima, Peru. “We are aiming to increase the value of the games through sponsorship activations through partner companies, and securing even more local sponsors." The figure is three times Tokyo 2020’s original sales revenue budget, a surge that experts say reflects the country’s nationalistic business culture and robust interest in the Games that is allowing for some unconventional deals. For instance, Tokyo 2020 has sold two gold-level sponsorships in the banking category to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group. IOC VP John Coates, chair of the IOC’s oversight committee for Tokyo, called it a “remarkable achievement, particularly when you realize that Toyota, Panasonic and Bridgestone are TOP partners and not included in those amounts." Despite the strong revenue picture, Tokyo and the IOC continue to look to cut costs from the game’s $12.6B operating budget, which has doubled from its original bid projections. “We are concerned we must continue to reduce operational costs because of the impression that it gives,” Coates said. “There’s no issues here about the Japanese organizing committee and the government being able to fund this, but I think it gives the wrong message if we continue to have Games that cost too much." The '08 Beijing Games had set the prior record with $1.2B, and both London ’12 and Rio ’16 sold about $1B in domestic sponsorships, in figures unadjusted for inflation. In its most recently published plan, the LA '28 bid committee plans on selling $1.9B in '16 dollars worth of domestic sponsorships.